US authorities delay tax filing deadline by three months

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the administration of President Donald Trump has decided to push the income tax filing date to July 15 from April 15.

Mnuchin announced the decision in a tweet on Friday saying that at Trump’s direction “we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.”

The administration had announced earlier in the week that it would delay the payments, a move that Mnuchin said would leave $300bn in the economy at a critical time.

Mnuchin and other members of Trump’s economic team convened on Friday on Capitol Hill to launch negotiations with Senate Republicans and Democrats racing to draft a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package amid the coronavirus outbreak.

It is the biggest effort yet to shore up households and the US economy as the pandemic and its nationwide shutdown hurtles the country towards a likely recession.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled the Republican opening offer to pump $1,200 direct cheques to taxpayers, $300bn for small businesses to keep idled workers on payrolls and $208bn in loans to airlines and other industries.

The GOP leader’s effort builds on Trump’s request for Congress to “go big”.